MANAGING THE DECLINE.

In 2006, I mocked the University of Florida. "The University of Florida is discovering that attempting to pass off Yugo U. as Fairlane U. isn't going to work terribly well." Their merit pay policy, such as it was, reduced to "if you can find a better offer, perhaps we'll match it."  Or not.  State officials pursued a policy of proliferating degree mills.  Key point for today's return to Florida: "[T]he creation of additional capacity that looks like a degree mill is unlikely to make good use of tax dollars, and the imposition of the responsibilities of a degree mill on faculty who aspire to more is unlikely to do much for their morale."

In the latest development, even upwardly mobile Florida takes on more of the aspect of a degree mill.

Like many public universities, the University of Florida faced significant budget cuts in the recent economic downturn. Such cuts led to reductions and eliminations of Ph.D. programs across the country, including at Florida, where the computer-science, engineering, psychology, and statistics programs have downsized. But it is rare for an economics program to be on the chopping block.

The number of economics Ph.D. programs housed in business colleges has held steady since 2008, according to a survey of 407 American institutions accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and the job market for new economics Ph.D.'s is relatively healthy. In 2010-11, almost 89 percent of all economics graduates who sought employment got jobs, and 62 percent of those landed academic positions, according to a survey of 191 economics departments by the Center for Business and Economic Research.

The economics faculty is extremely small for a university its size, and the graduate faculty have been admitting new Ph.D. students only in alternating years.

If university administrators think their economics departments are rebellious and too prone to speak back now, they ought keep in mind that fewer Ph.D.s coming into the pipeline from inter alia Florida and Case Western and Emory (all solid programs) further skews the job market in the economists' favor.

ON ANY TRACK, AT ANY TIME, IN EITHER DIRECTION.

The Northwest Indiana Times thought it might be fitting to showcase the local football talent in an industrial setting.

Big mistake.

To illustrate the story, it chose to pose the players in a CSX Transportation yard in East Chicago, which later caught the eye of the railroad's special agent.

The photos show the players posing with shovels on tracks and railcars. One player is sitting on the coupler of a covered hopper, another is on a coil steel car, and there is a group photo posed on a flatcar with the photographer apparently on top of an adjacent railcar.

A coupler is a particularly unsafe place to be if something couples to the other end of the string, and standing atop a car that's not under a blue flag is a good way to get hurt.

Times executive editor William Nangle acknowledges the error.

The photos in the preview section show the players around, on and inside rail cars. It made for an interesting backdrop.

The problem is the rail yard is private property, and no one at The Times thought to secure permission to photograph there.

Worse yet is that in some cases, the photos depict players in situations that are deemed unsafe. In short, we left the players vulnerable.

In addition, trespassing at the rail yard is a criminal offense. That means the photographer and each player involved with the East Chicago photo session could be charged. Not a happy prospect.

Robert Mahan, of Cedar Lake, special agent in charge of the CSX Railroad Police’s Chicago Division, saw the preview section and came to see me. He pointed to the trespassing, the photos reflecting unsafe practices and the fact criminal charges could be leveled.

Well, the high school students can rest easy. Mahan is an understanding man and isn’t going to seek charges.

Instead, he wants a lesson to be learned — about trespassing on railroad property and how unsafe a railroad site can be without knowing proper safety procedures.

Those who labor daily in the rail yards know well of the dangers there and are trained to operate safely.

As for The Times, I apologize to the railroad and to the student athletes we unwittingly put in a bad situation.

The railroad track is no place to play.  Digital cropping and enhancement allow me to take train pictures from a safe distance, and bring the viewer closer in a way that is hazardous only to a few pixels.

THE DIFFICULTY OF INVOKING GODWIN.

First person to invoke Hitler loses the argument.  What happens, though, if people simply channel Hitler.  His declaration of war on the United States blamed the Jews for U. S. aggression.

It's not much of a surprise to find Patrick Buchanan opposing a war because the Israeli lobby apparently favors it.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations has joined the Israeli lobby AIPAC in an all-out public campaign for a U.S. war on Syria

What happens, though, when a commenter to Chris Hayes sees the same hidden hands at work?

Moving beyond the FAILED Israeli/Israeli Lobby effort to hoax the US into a war with Syria (the House is at 217 vote majority against the strikes) - a whole new world opens up; rapprochement with Iran

With the Neocons/Israeli Lobby out of the way, bruised from their defeat, we can snatch the main prize in the Middle East, US engagement with Iran, whilst the Neocons are too stunned to react

Let’s make hay while the sun shines and relegate the Israeli Lobby and Neocons to the dustbin of history where they belong. Before they wakeup and CONTINUE to try to hoax/mousetrap us into a war with Iran.

Nation readers and Human Events readers can debate among themselves whether the Neocons or the Israeli Lobby are the new Freemasons.

LIFE AT A PARTY SCHOOL.

With a few days' lag, the Badger detox report.

Police at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say they arrested nearly twice as many people for underage drinking at this weekend's football game than they did during the Badgers' opening game Aug. 31.

The department says 24 people, including 23 UW-Madison students, were arrested during Saturday's home game against Tennessee Tech. A week ago, when the Badgers played Massachusetts, the numbers were 13 and 11.

The highest preliminary breath sample Saturday was 0.30 percent. Last week, it was 0.33 percent. The legal limit for driving is 0.08 percent.

Campus police ejected 45 people, including 38 UW-Madison students, from Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday. In all, 27 were kicked out a week ago.

This week is an away game, let's see what the police blotter from Arizona State looks like.

CONCRETE PROOF.

Some years ago, I suggested a photo study of the Hennepin Canal might be forthcoming.

This canal was an early application of concrete casting technologies later applied on the Panama Canal. Unfortunately, the Hennepin was built bigger than the old Illinois and Michigan canal and smaller than the Mississippi or Illinois River locks, rendering it uneconomic. It's a good linear park, with a towpath suitable for hiking or leisurely bike riding.

For almost as long, the Iowa Interstate Railroad's steam locomotives have eluded me.

Sometimes, though, everything comes together.

Lock 17, just east of Wyanet, illustrates the use of concrete.  The girder bridge across the lock used to roll to the north to provide additional vertical clearance.

At the Panama Canal and the Welland Canal, the triple flight locks are part of one massive casting.  Here, where there locks do not come in pairs, there's a meeting basin at which barges going up can trade places with barges going down.  The view is downhill toward the Illinois River.

There are a few spots along this stretch of the canal offering views of the adjacent former Rock Island main line, now operated by Iowa Interstate.  Steam trains are running today, to raise money for the Tiskilwa and Sheffield Fire Departments.  I took videos.  There was plenty of time to walk along the canal from one photo spot to another.

Concrete everywhere ... the abutment for the truss bridge just upstream of Lock 17.  The truss bridges remain as historic relics.  You can walk across them but the use of motor vehicles is prohibited, and not advisable.

This ruin, upstream between Lock 17 and Aqueduct 4 (with an unobstructed view of the Iowa Interstate at an elevation below the canal grade), is the workshop for casting concrete fittings.

A concrete bollard, just downstream from Aqueduct 4.

A few concrete utility poles remain near the workshop.

But there were trains to catch.  I had time to follow the noon departure from Tiskilwa into Sheffield, there to discover that a ticket to ride could be had.  Nothing like smoke and cinders on a warm day (the one day of relief from this very late heat wave being not much relief.)

The Sheffield fire department had left a message on its non-emergency line that the trains had sold out.  Apparently early sales were slow, thus neither community arranged with the railroad to offer a late afternoon trip, then tickets went very quickly.  The presence of a steam train on the Iowa Interstate did take at least one transient by surprise.

The power for westbound trips: Iowa Interstate 7081, a 1986 product of Datong.  The Chinese QJ is based on the Soviet LV which itself borrows a few ideas from the Baldwin Tb 2-10-2 built as part of the Big Engine approach during the Stalin years.  There are a lot of details of the tender, cab, turret, and fittings that are similar to the Andreyev 4-14-4, and digital cameras are useful tools for such research.  Behind the locomotive: additional water, the tool car, eight coaches that used to haul Montreal commuters on the Canadian National, and a diesel for leading eastbound moves.

The coaches have lots of capacity for passengers.  The lower windows are the kind of plastic that's prone to fogging, and the seats look to have been removed from school buses, probably not what Canadian National used.  The safety messages inside, though, are in Quebecois.

Upon return to Sheffield, most of the passengers may have been sufficiently sated, or the kids sufficiently cranky, that unobstructed views of the locomotive were relatively easily obtained.  This locomotive retains some of its Chinese styling.  The other one has black driver centers in the North American fashion.

CRACKING THE TOP 25.

I've often referred to Northern Illinois University as the best-kept secret in the state.

Business Insider noticed.

THE RAIL PROFESSIONALS TAKE UP THE CAUSE.

Trains stringer Brian Schmidt has a few days to explore the corridor services radiating from Chicago, discovers he doesn't have enough days.

There are still four corridors and a few other routes out of Chicago I've never seen. But, unfortunately, lack of foresight and planning on behalf of the states supporting the corridors conspires to make them pretty much useless as connecting services.

Yes. When the additional frequencies rolled out in the fall of 2006, I noted,

The additional frequencies are encouraging, although I hope the Amtrak and Illinois DofT performance reviews consider the potential for connectivity. The geography of Illinois makes some connections impractical via Chicago (e.g. Urbana-Bloomington or Carbondale-St. Louis) but there might be some value in having good connections such as Milwaukee-Bloomington or Kalamazoo-Macomb or Ann Arbor-Urbana or Lansing-Springfield. Here, there are a few niggling details.

Mr Schmidt quickly discovers the details are more than niggling.

The first southbound Hiawatha departs Milwaukee a 6:15 a.m. and arrives in Chicago at 7:57 a.m. That's a much easier train trip to the Windy City than I ever had out of Toledo. (And six days a week, there are seven round trips!)

My first thought was to go to St. Louis, ride some light rail, see the Gateway Arch, and come home on Sunday. The southbound trip works out great. The first Lincoln Service departure from Chicago is at 9:25 a.m., a reasonable 1.5-hour layover from my inbound Hiawatha. The return trip, however is the weak link here.

The last northbound Hiawatha departs Chicago at 8:05 p.m. The 3 p.m. Lincoln Service departure from St. Louis arrives in Chicago at 8:40 p.m. Close, but no connection. The next previous departure? The Texas Eagle at 7:55 a.m., which gets me back to Chicago at 1:52 p.m. (in theory). And the two morning Lincoln Service departures leave St. Louis at 4:35 and 6:40 a.m.

So my "weekend" in St. Louis turned into a 3 p.m. arrival and an early morning departure from the hotel the next morning.

Because the Illinois Department of Transportation underwrites those trains, their schedules have Illinois State students and Springfield politicians and shoppers headed for the Mag Mile in mind.  In the very early days of Amtrak, his overnight in St. Louis would have been feasible, with the early morning departure from Milwaukee on the Prairie State, and a return on the afternoon Prairie State that got away from Chicago at 10.30 for a midnight arrival in Milwaukee.  A St. Louisan out for a weekend in Milwaukee would use the Abraham Lincoln.  Cardinal fans headed to Milwaukee can manage with the existing schedules, although some of those have inordinately long layovers in Chicago.  "Hiawatha 332 arrives Chicago four minutes after 303 leaves."

HE'S NO DR. WIN-THE-WAR.

War presidents are never irresolute.

More in the same vein compiled at Betsy's Page.

LEADING THE BIG TEN'S WESTERN DIVISION.

Never mind that pathetic Iowa student bragging on her .341 blood alcohol content.

The professionals go to Wisconsin.

In one instance a 19-year-old woman seen stumbling around Camp Randall Stadium before Saturday's Badgers football game had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.33. Another 19-year-old woman found passed out near D.C. Smith Greenhouse facility had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.37.

The legal level of proof of intoxication for motorists in Wisconsin is 0.08.

"These are extremely high levels of intoxication and incapacitation," UW-Madison police Chief Susan Riseling said.

"It's very possible that in the .37 case, if no one called for help, this student may have died."

Commenters on the story note inter alia the sun rises in the east and the Pope is Catholic.

ELEVEN PRIME.

When Cold Spring Shops opened, I promised to provide content sporadically.  I kept the promise in part, in that daily posting never happened, nor is it likely to happen going forward.  On the other hand, persisting for eleven years isn't exactly sporadic.

BAD HISTORY.

Secretary of State John Kerry made an emotional and factually imprecise case for Operation "Just The Tip."

Towards the end of a four-hour hearing, John Kerry invoked American soldiers who died on the beaches of Normandy in World War II, suggesting that America has a similar responsibility to intervene in Syria.

“Have you ever been to the cemetery in France above those beaches?” Kerry asked the House Foreign Affairs Committee this afternoon, in an attempt to convince members to approve military action. “Why’d those guys have to go do that? Because we were standing up with people for a set of values and fighting for freedom.”

When all else fails, try a guilt trip. Never mind that "those guys" had to go do that because the leader of another power declared war on the United States, making a case that sounds a lot like complaints I've heard about current presidents.

The circle of Jews around Roosevelt encouraged him in this. With Old Testament vindictiveness they regarded the United States as the instrument that they and he could use to prepare a second Purim [slaughter of enemies] against the nations of Europe, which were increasingly anti-Jewish. So it was that the Jews, in all of their satanic baseness, gathered around this man, and he relied on them.

The American president increasingly used his influence to create conflicts, intensify existing conflicts, and, above all, to keep conflicts from being resolved peacefully. For years this man looked for a dispute anywhere in the world, but preferably in Europe, that he could use to create political entanglements with American economic obligations to one of the contending sides, which would then steadily involve America in the conflict and thus divert attention from his own confused domestic economic policies.

Before those troops were able to cross the Channel to Normandy, they had to cross an Atlantic Ocean infested with U-boats. Perhaps Secretary Kerry ought to try wind-surfing the Outer Banks.

Visitors to Cape Hatteras National Seashore are often surprised to learn that this tranquil setting was once an arena of death and destruction due to rampaging German U-boats. In the dark days of early 1942, enemy submarines descended upon local waters, wreaking havoc on defenseless merchant ships in full view of the Outer Banks. The pivotal naval campaign that followed, one marked by conspicuous instances of ignorance, frustration, and heroism, came perilously close to knocking the United States out of World War II.

Had the Battle of the Atlantic gone badly, the North African campaign and all that followed might have been delayed, or not taken place.  Had Overlord gone badly, the backup plan was under development at Oak Ridge and Hanford.

I see no evidence of a similar resolve to blast and sponge and purge every stain of Islamofascism's infected, corroding fingers from the face of the earth.

Without a clear purpose and resolve (sorry, the construct of a "world community" doesn't cut it), there's no reason to send a message that may or may not lead to a regime change in Syria that may or may not be (compare Egypt and Libya) an improvement on the status quo.

THERE ARE STANDARDS.

Mixed martial arts fighting is either the quintessence of Thirteenth Generation crude, or a perfect metaphor for a diverse demographic gone downscale.  Whatever it might be, it is Not. Proper. Entertainment. in Naperville.

[City Councilman Paul] Hinterlong said fighting of this kind has no place in Naperville, where the city has worked within the past year to quell bar fights that cropped up on weekends by deploying more police officers downtown, increasing the number of security cameras in the area and better enforcing occupancy limits.

"I don't want that here. Enough fighting already," Hinterlong said. "I don't think it's an image Naperville needs."

The event would have included fighting, music and alcohol for sale — a combination Councilman Bob Fieseler said is too similar to the conditions that led to the string of bar fights.

At least one commenter on the article finds the city's "upright, snobby image" off-putting.  Another suggests that "equating a bar fight to a sanctioned sport" is sloppy thinking.

What is the world coming to?  What it deserves.

THE UPLIFTING POWER OF WATER.

London's Tower Bridge is simply a fancy version of the canonical Chicago bascule bridge, apart from the water-powered machinery.  The towers include standpipes necessary for proper operation.

In Milwaukee's Third Ward, Hoffco shoe polish comes from a factory with the last working hydraulic elevator in the city.  The factory building is a converted sail loft, now commingled with brew-pubs, art galleries, and loft apartments.

Developers covet the shoe polish factory. "I tell them, 'Thank you, but we are making shoe polish here. I'm not interested,'" says owner Lorraine Hoffman.

THE ROAD TO RICHES.

Longtime UCLA historian Joyce Appleby explores the evolution of contemporary economic institutions in The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism.  Book Review N^o. 26 suggests that readers put aside all their priors (historian?  relentless?  capitalism?) and read and understand the book.  Turn to page 77 on primitive accumulation.  "The countryside's most salient division became that between those who engaged in improvements and those who didn't."  In case readers didn't get the message, the next paragraph reads "These may sound like innocuous statements, but they challenge the Marxist position that the conversion of agriculture from primitive reproduction to enhanced productivity began with farsighted landlords who coerced their tenants into commercial leases."  No surprise to readers of The Lever of Riches or How The West Grew Rich or Human Action, but how many history students, let alone casual readers, have even a passing familiarity with works that are obscure or recondite even to working economists?  Likewise, regular Cold Spring Shops readers get that Complex Adaptive Systems Do What They Darn Well Please.  It's encouraging to see a discussion of The Great Depression that notes (p. 279), "[I]n a free market economy, though some people have much more power than others, no one is in charge.  All the material aspects of the economy ... rely on personal and institutional choices."  Thus "an unforeseen development is usually in the offing."  Let nobody misinterpret Relentless Revolution as a pro-capitalist tract.  The critics, whether of a Marxist, Third-World-o-philic, or religious bent, receive a judicious hearing.  And the tensions between the libertarian and religious members of the Republican coalition have a long and intellectually serious pedigree.

(Cross-posted to 50 Book Challenge.)

KEEP 'EM ROLLING.

Electropneumatic interlocking plants still govern the movement of trains, and WMAQ reports on an important one at the hottest hot spot of the Metra system.

Lots of good block bell and lever action sound effects.

OPTING OUT.

The Washington Post notes that many government bureaucrats are choosing to walk away.

With retirement accounts on the rebound, many veteran workers are finding little reason to remain in government, especially at a time when agency budgets are being slashed, workers are being furloughed and morale is tumbling.

In some cases, government workers are leaving because of unkind things Members of Congress are saying about their agencies, although Cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries retain the bureaucratic imperative to protect their fiefdoms.

Contrast that with public higher education, in which when the administrators and legislators are not in pissing contests with each other, they are imposing additional burdens on faculty and staff, and ask yourself how much longer the senior people will continue to put up with it.

OPERATION "JUST THE TIP".

I got that code word from Ed Schultz this evening.  The big network appears still to be attempting to sell the people on the necessity of Doing Something about Syria.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Obama Network affiliate in Chicago also aired local politicians attempting to convince the public.

I was unable to find another clip from the same weekend, in which Chicago citizens suggested that protecting Chicago children was more clearly in The Public Interest.  Milwaukeeans made a similar case.

"Seven thousand black males die in homicides every year in the United States," said Muhibb Dyer, 38, of the Wisconsin Chapter of the League of Young Voters, which sponsors the annual event. "This is a critical issue of our time, and we have to do more as a society to address it."

Locally, August was one of the most violent months in recent memory, according to Milwaukee police, with eight people killed and nearly two dozen injured in the first week alone.

The city has had 66 homicides so far this year. The August spike in violence comes after a 19% increase in nonfatal shootings in June and July, compared with the same two months in 2012.

The government proposes to calibrate strikes on Syrian military targets in such a way as not to affect the outcome of a conflict between al-qaeda and a Baath party. I submit that a crime-control policy in the big cities can be calibrated in such a way as to not affect the re-election chances of Bobby and Gwen and John and Maxine.  On the other hand, a serious electoral challenge to one-party rule in the big cities might also be a way to enhance the life chances of residents therein.

Meanwhile, Our President is taking justifiable stick for redefining his red line as somebody else's red line.

“I didn’t set a red line, the world set a red line,” Obama said. “My credibility is not on the line. The international community’s credibility is on the line. And America and Congress’ credibility is on the line because we give lip service to the notion that these international norms are important.”

At an August 2012 White House press conference, Obama warned that “we have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.”

Margaret Thatcher is not available to point out that there is no such thing as "the international community." Nor have any postmodern philosophers deconstructed the construct itself.

MY BLOGPALS HAVE KEPT CURRENT.

No reason for me to create a lot of original content today, given the work of others.

On the long weekend, I went to the Illinois Railway Museum for its 60th Anniversary gala (the collection first established in 1953 in the back lot of the Chicago Hardware Foundry works in North Chicago).

Union Pacific recognized the event with a diesel from its Historical Motive Power collection.

Eighteen is from the museum collection.  It is one of only a few General Electric 10,000 horsepower gas turbine electric locomotives to be preserved.  Behind it, 6936 is Union Pacific's own, and it's as meritorious of its place in the collection as are 844, 3985, and 4014.

Two visiting steam locomotives brought out the casual enthusiasts.

At left, Lehigh Valley Coal 126, from the anthracite fields of Hazleton, Pennsylvania.  At right, an oil-burning replica of Central Pacific 63 Leviathan.  Resident Russian Decapod 1630 is still under repair.  It passed the hydrostatic test this summer.  Because of the way regulations start the clock on boiler life, it is unlikely to be steamed up until the beginning of next summer.

The serious enthusiasts noted some more distinctive rolling stock.

At left, South Shore 803 is one of twenty motors built for the USSR and stranded in the Americas by Cold War embargoes.  It is the only one currently operable, unless one of the five that went to Brazil is still running.  At right, Burlington 9911 Silver Pilot, still capable of sustained running at track speeds, is the only diesel of its type in preservation.

Soviet railroads used light rail, thus steam locomotives had as many as 14 driving wheels, and the South Shore motors 16, to reduce axle loadings.

There's always reason to post another picture of Silver Pilot and the Nebraska Zephyr.

And thus does the school year properly begin.

THE MORALITY OF CANNIBALS.

A silly Slate columnist asserts, "You are a bad person if you send your children to private school."

The best rebuttals, and more than a few snarks, are nailed to Newmark's Door.

REMEMBERING RONALD COASE.

There's a link-rich recollection at Knowledge Problem.

Coase’s observation is apt — strong assumptions to enable excessive formalism in our theory formation reduce our ability to use our models to understand how the world works, and that’s a tradeoff that we confront constantly.

Indeed.